I solve throat and voice problems from the viewpoint of a kineticist.

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Monthly Archives: June 2015

The 3 tenors are Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras. They performed in concert together at the ‘Baths of Caracalla’ in Rome, Italy in July of 1990. The DVD of the concert has since been released.
Although they did not sing the same song, all of them had such confidence that each one was the best singer of the three.
They even fought over who sing first.
Their voice were incredible, amazing and their singing really helped us to understand that style vocalizing more.
You can easily observe the forms of the larynx, the jaw, the mouth shapes, the tongue and the lips’ movements in the movie.
I mention their the characteristics of singing as follows:
●Luciano Pavarotti:Pharyngeal cavity
●Plácido Domingo:Standing the lingual apex and the epipharynx
●Jose Carreras:Mouth and lips
The above points mentioned mainly outline each tenor’s strongest quality displayed in that performance. They all sing very well, so I cannot judge which one is the best. This is because the voice depends on a lot of individual factors.
Even if you want to sing like Pavarotti, you cannot sing like him if your middle constrictor strains and if you do not have a large sized resonance chamber. You have to improve muscles to support the hyoid bone and have maximum flexibility.
If you understand your throat (by yourself well) and learn by observing how to sing a song from their performances, you don’t need anything else!

Note1:You can understand and know your throat better if you use a video recording image, and investigate the status of the musculus extrinsic laryngis by means of palpating.

If you don’t have any visible or detectable problems at the otological hospital when you have a boxy voice, you might be LDP because
Exhalation decreases in depth due to the larynx being positioned deep. The air exhaled also decreases in velocity when coming out of the body, and looses resonance in the nasal cavity. People have five resonance chambers.

Note1:If you treat LDP, you will get a clear and rich voice.

Note2:The nasal cavity plays a very important role in vocalization, and the space is really small.

If you let out a high-pitched voice suddenly, by accident, the cricothyroid muscle has extended too rapidly and the myotatic reflex has stopped the muscle extending at same time.
This could also hurt your muscles if you let out a high-pitched voice without warming up first. Conversely, if you extend muscles slowly, the golgi tendon organ(inverse myotatic reflex) extends the muscles more.
Therefore, you need to let out your high-pitched voice gradually.
I’ve heard a vocal coach instruct students and say, “If you want to improve your high-pitched voice, you have to let out a high-pitched voice suddenly.” This is obviously wrong. Please be aware of that.

Note1:It takes a long time if you hurt the muscles relating to vocalization to heal and correct themselves. At my voice care clinic, it actually took 2 years to fix an injured cricothyroid muscle before.

Note2:☆ is the injured part in the above figure. The muscle tendon junction is injured more than the middle. Most of the muscles are relevant to moving the cricothyroid articulation.

The upper area dilator muscles represent a subgroup of muscles located in the pharyngeal area. In addition to their role in vocalizing, they also have important respiratory functions.
Muscles cannot extend by themselves and need/depend on other muscles to extend, that is referred to as an antagonism.
The obturator muscle is also extended by an antagonism.
The obturator muscle is composed of the lateral cricoarytenoid muscle, the transverse arytenoid muscle, and the thyroarytenoid muscle.
No one can recognize the right position of these muscles, how to move/control them or the statuses of these muscles on their own.
The muscles of vocalizing are really special and unique.
The ‘antagonistic muscle’ of the lateral cricoarytenoid muscle, the transverse arytenoid muscle and the thyroarytenoid muscle is the posterior cricoarytenoid muscle.
The posterior cricoarytenoid muscle is very big to be able to support three other muscles.
Therefore, if the posterior cricoarytenoid muscle can move very well, and makes it possible to close the glottis tightly.

I surveyed 5 people who have intercostal neuralgia after a fracture of the ribs or the herpes zoster.
When you have pain in your chest …
A:It’s hard to let out your voice: 4 people
B:It’s easy to let out your voice: 0 people
C:No difference from previous state before the fracture: 1 person
Besides the above answers, they also disclosed having problems such as, “I cannot take a long breath,” or, “I cannot let out a loud voice anymore.”
Please be aware that if you have intercostal neuralgia it can interfere with breathing. Breathing is necessary to vocalize, and determines as well as changes many factors associated with vocalization abilities.

Note:In the past I also had similar problems with breathing, due to chest pain when I injured my costal cartilages. At that time I began to understand that breathing is really relevant to the voice’s volume, the length of the voice emitted, and its vibrations.

A hoarse voice is not directly connected to a cervical disc hernia, because the nervous systems are different from eachother.
The nerve relating to the cervical disc hernia is positioned from the cervical spine to the arm and fingers, via the brachial plexus.
The nervous system relating to a hoarse voice is positioned to the larynx from the neck. These nerves are the recurrent laryngeal nerve and the superior laryngeal nerve.
Therefore, there is no possibility for causing or having any connection with a hoarse voice by way of a cervical disc hernia.
Note:There are some indirect influences about the cervical disc hernia and a hoarse voice. This is because if you hurt your neck, you try to avoid or prevent from feeling continuous future pain to the neck by straining the muscles around neck. This is done usually to support the injured or sore neck.
This action also affects the anterior cervical which hardens muscles relating to vocalization. As well as the larynx being positioned deep in the throat. The lesser horn of the cartilage is pressured due to LDP. So, the opening of the glottis will make a hoarse voice.
If your Doctor says you have no problem with the vocal cords at the otological hospital, you might have LDP. It is often overlooked and sometimes difficult to detect through standard tests. For unanswered questions and broader scales of diagnoses, seek a Specialist in ‘Throat Care’ for more detailed and complete tests.

You can make an attractive hoarse voice, if you mix your real voice and hoarse voice properly.
The attractive voice just slightly includes the hoarse voice.
If you are used to listening to the different voices of popular singers, you can understand that many professional singers open the vocal cord when they are singing. Some professional singers can even control the glottis to open or close easily and smoothly. These skills and techniques are applied to produce a great voice. The pharyngeal cavity is also important to turn the hoarse voice into a rich voice.

Note1:If all your breathing is used to vibrate the vocal cords, the sound will become too loud and possibly discomfort people. Strained vocalizing, is okay to an extent, uses a little bit of a hoarse voice only to express and accentuate various emotions.

Note2:There are two reasons why your singing is not heard well from yourself. The first reason is the most common, which is simply just lacking a sense of rhythm. Another reason could be because its too hard to, or you just can’t, control opening and closing the glottis. People who struggle to sing a song the most usually have these two issues. You have to practice and learn control in the voices’ mechanics to sing an amazing song if you want to attract or captivate your audience.

Note3:You have to touch the throat muscles to become more familiar with their current, and future statuses. Which will help in being able to identify improvements. Such as, if you want to know the obturator muscle in detail. Although keep in mind that some muscles ( e.g. the lateral cricoarytenoid muscle, the transverse arytenoid muscle and the oblique arytenoid muscle) are positioned behind the thyroid cartilage. These are used to control the opening or closing of the vocal cord, and cannot be investigated over the skin.